


Find a penny, pick it up...

by adagietto4



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: 5+1 Things, But mostly angst, Fluff and Angst, Foreshadowing, Superstitious habits, Tessa loves lucky pennies, Through the Years, Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 09:25:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16784194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adagietto4/pseuds/adagietto4
Summary: Scott was never one to believe in Tessa's superstitious beliefs, like putting one skate on before the other, or wearing a certain piece of clothing before a competition, or placing her skate guards just so on the boards, but he could never deny the feeling in his gut of "this is going to be a good day" whenever she found a penny on the ground.OrFive times Tessa thinks Scott plants a lucky penny for her to find, and one time he definitely does.





	Find a penny, pick it up...

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Thanks to Andi for recommending this fic! I had a blast writing (and rewriting) this chapter, and I hope you'll all have just as much fun reading it!

It was some time in early August and they had just started training for the compulsories when she started to notice the dull pain in her shins.

Tessa couldn't specifically remember the first time her legs started to hurt, the pain was just always kind of there. It started as a dull twinge in her right leg (she brushed it off as muscle strain at the beginning), but the pain grew and grew and spread to the other leg until eventually she could barely stand after coming off of the ice. Yet having nothing to compare it to, she thought it was just over-exertion, or a pulled muscle, or maybe even growing pains. Did she hit her leg off of the table in the hallway too hard (again)? Since Scott didn’t talk about how much his legs hurt, she didn’t either. Day after day she opted to push through it. She didn’t want to make a big deal over nothing.

It _was_ nothing, right?

The first time Scott took notice, she lied to him about it.

They managed to pull off a couple of semi-decent run-throughs of the compulsory dance by midmorning, so Marina had given them a small break, much to Tessa’s anticipation. Scott watched as she sped off to the bench and plopped down with a defeated sigh and immediately started to unlace her skates. He followed and leaned against the boards, eyeing her curiously.

“Whatcha up to?” He asked as he picked up his green Gatorade hockey water bottle and squirted the water into his mouth, then pointed the bottle up and blowing mist into the air like some rambunctious child trying to get her attention.

“Just loosening up my skates,” she replied with a huff as she pulled at the laces eagerly. She leaned back against the cool concrete wall and splayed her legs out in front of her, closing her eyes in relief and reaching for her water bottle.

“What’s up with ‘em?” Scott asked again, pointing at her legs. “We’ve only been at it for a couple hours.”

Tessa waved her hand at them dismissedly. “They’re just a little sore,” she stated as she pulled herself up, rubbing her hands up and down her legs soothingly. “Just need to be relaxed. _Tight_.”

Scott raised an eyebrow. “Is that normal for you?” He blew some more mist into the air in Tessa’s direction, dampening her face. She grimaced in disgust and dragged her sleeve across her face, annoyedly muttering “gross, Scott.”

“I guess?” she answered in between sips. “I’m noticing it more now than I used to. I think it might be my skates, like they just need to be broken in some more.” She stomped her feet on the ground to warm them up. “Or maybe my circulation.”

“How often does it happen?”

She shrugged slightly as she answered. “Not often.” _Lie_.

Scott thought for a moment before speaking again. “Maybe you didn’t cool down properly yesterday? You know, because you put so much strain on your muscles and if you don’t decompress properly they get sore afterwords?”

Tessa hummed in agreement. “Yeah, I thought about that, too. That’s probably what it is. That, and the new skates.” _Another lie_. “I just need to stretch them out a bit more.”

“Well, if you ever need to stop, T, just let me know. Don’t skate if it hurts too much.”

Tessa nodded in thanks but didn’t think much of what he said. “I’m fine, Scott.” _And another_. He nodded apprehensively before making off to join Charlie at the other end of the rink, his loud and boastful self always bustling around with different people. Tessa silently wished he would’ve stayed with her, comforted her, but he didn’t, and she’d never dare say that out loud.

Unbeknownst to Scott, Tessa had been experiencing the pain for quite a few days and had been skating through it, hiding her pain from him and their coaches because she truly believed it would go away, waving it off as a combination of her not-yet-broken-in skates and poor circulation or inadequate warmups and therefore nothing worth making a fuss over.

But it didn’t go away.

For weeks she skated through her pain before Scott made her talk to their coaches. Marina and Igor had her put in extra time on the ice to break in her skates quicker and see a physical therapist, which helped for a while but the relief never lasted. Nothing seemed to work and, to counter the efforts to make her legs better, the pain continued to get worse. And it didn’t just flair up during the compulsory practices, but their original dance and free dance practices, too. The therapy helped for a while, but as soon as she was on the ice Tessa was in agony again. 

This, of course, never left their circle of trust. Some of it never even left her mouth. Neither Tessa’s parents nor even Scott knew the extent of her pain.

Thanksgiving weekend offered them a bit of a respite. They jumped at the opportunity to go home and put their feet up (which Tessa took quite literally) and enjoy some time with their families. The only thing they didn’t enjoy about going home was the inevitability of going back to Canton.

Scott picked her up at 6pm sharp that Monday evening so they could get back to Canton before it got too late, their bellies full of homemade stuffing and apple pie. Tessa pushed her seat back and relaxed into her travel blanket as soon as she hopped into his car, pulling out her new book from Jordan in preparation for the same boring drive back to the States. She propped her feet onto the dash of his car to alleviate some of the pain in her legs and with a sigh, opened up her book to distract herself from whatever generic pop song playing on the radio. 

The closer they got to the border, it seemed, the more Tessa’s legs started to scream. She pulled them off of the dash and into her lap to try to rub some of the pain away, but the sudden flow of blood made them throb. She winced and eased her feet down to the floor of Scott’s car, taking deep breaths through her nose, doing her best to be subtle as to not worry Scott, but he noticed.

“Are your legs bothering you again?” He asked softly over the dull monotonous droning of the local weather man, reaching over to squeeze her knee.

“Mh,” Tessa hummed gruffly, giving neither a yes nor a no. She hated to lie but didn’t want to tell him the truth because honestly, her legs were killing her and they barely ever stopped—but she was _not_ about to get into that. She directed her attention back to the book in her lap and tried to get back into it, but her legs were hurting too much and Scott’s glare was penetrating, so she stared back.

“Eyes on the road,” she said plainly with a cocky raise of her eyebrows. “And both hands on the wheel.” Gingerly, he removed his hand from her knee, mumbling an unapologetic “Sorry”.

“Tell me the truth, T,” he coaxed, “It’s okay.”

Tessa sighed exasperatedly. “I really don’t want to talk about it, Scott.” He frowned at her. “It’s nothing against you, trust me,” she reassured him, “I just don’t want to focus on my legs because that’s not what’s important. Competition is important, let’s focus on that.” She put her nose back in her book. “Sometimes if I ignore the pain, it’s not as bad, anyways.” He frowned again.

“You shouldn’t ignore your pain, Tess,” he tempted. “If it’s serious, and it’s still bothering you, you should try to get help.” Tessa grimaced and pinched the bridge of her nose in budding anger.

“I just said I _don’t_ want to talk about it, Scott,” she snapped, whipping her head to look out the passenger side window so she couldn’t tell if he was still looking at her or not. 

He was. Damn reflections. 

She tried to ignore the guilt she felt pooling low in her gut as she saw the concern etched into all of his facial features. From the knit of his brow, to the fogginess in his eyes, to the tightness in his jaw and the way he gnawed on his lower lip. The more she tried to ignore him, the more she could hear Suzanne’s voice in her head, repeating “communication, talk to each other, be there for each other,” over and over, but she wouldn’t—no, _couldn’t_ talk about it. Communication be damned. 

The out-of-range radio signal had since turned to an eery static, filling the car with a low buzz that made her head feel fuzzy and heavy. She focused on the sharp crackles emanating from the speakers and tried to imagine it seeping into her head, drowning out her thoughts and, more importantly, the vision of Scott’s anxiety-riddled face that made her feel more and more guilty the longer she thought of it. She closed her eyes as she willed him to look away. _Look away, Scott, just look away._

Scott turned his attention back to the road, lifting his hand to his mouth to nervously bite his nails. He thought for a moment, then quickly turned back to face Tessa, who was still staring out the window at the passing fields. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Tessa turned to face Scott again, her eyes meeting his. He was usually so good at reading peoples’ emotions, especially Tessa’s, but at that moment, it was as though she had cut off everything. Like the static really _had_ seeped into her head. There was nothing in her eyes, and it broke Scott’s heart to see it. With a sign, he shut his mouth and pursed his lips together tightly.

Tessa looked into Scott’s eyes and saw him pleading with her, begging her to tell him what was wrong, but she couldn’t so easily let her guard down, even if it was just her and Scott. She had been hiding the severity of the pain for so long that she wasn’t about to just open up and tell him everything because truthfully, she didn’t understand everything herself. And it scared the living shit out of her. Made her knees turn to jelly out of anxiety and dread whenever she thought of what might happen if the pain never went away.

With a sigh and a curt nod, he lazily turned away. He refocused his attention to the road in front of him, letting the buzz of the static envelope him.

Neither of them spoke for the rest of the drive.

Despite the agony that she experienced almost every time she took the ice, Tessa was sure to never let it affect their skating as much as she could help it. 

It was the day following Thanksgiving that her legs finally gave out on her for the first time. They were about half way through their fifth runthrough at their compulsory and were coming up from a particularly strenuous knee bend when Tessa felt her right leg seizing up.

“Oh!” she gasped as her leg started to cramp painfully. She pushed away from Scott and the other skaters as to not get hit by a flying blade and eased herself down onto the ice, sliding up to the boards with her leg stuck straight out. She shrugged her sweater off and slipped it underneath her as to not soak her leggings and leaned forward, stretching her leg to pull out the cramp, hissing and moaning through gritted teeth.

Scott skated over to her with a concerned look on his face and knelt down beside her as another couple whizzed by, Marina and Igor eyeing them suspiciously from the boards.

“What’s wrong, Tess?” He asked frantically as he panted, somewhat out of breath. She took deep breaths and screwed her eyes shut, willing the pain to go away or at least die down enough so they could continue skating.

“My legs,” she eked out. Finally the cramp passed and she let out a sigh of relief, easing back against the boards. They could hear Marina barking at the from across the arena and knew that they couldn’t stay seated on the ice for much longer. Scott held out his hand and she grateful took it, pulling her up. He reached down to grab her sweater, peeling it off of where it stuck to the ice and draping it around Tessa’s shoulders as they skated back over to their coaches.

“What is wrong?” Marina asked impassively. It sounded more like a statement to Tessa. Igor just stared, his arms crossed across his chest.

“It’s nothing,” Tessa lied, “Just a cramp, that’s all.” Scott came to a stop behind her and put a hand on her back.

“Do you need a break, Tess?” He asked sympathetically. Tessa shook her head and ducked away, trying to hide the grimace on her face as she skated back to centre ice, waving her hand at Scott to join her, but he refused.

“Tess,” Scott started, “Take a break. Drink some water, have a seat for a sec.”

“I’m fine, Scott,” Tessa insisted, slouching like a child and transferring her weight from leg to leg to relieve some of the pressure. She wasn’t the one to typically get angry over things, but she could feel her temper rising, her emotions bubbling. She just wanted to skate, to go on pretending that nothing was wrong with her. The pain would go away eventually, she was sure of it. Maybe if she kept faking, it really would. _Mind over matter, Tess, mind over matter._

“ _Tessa_ ,” he pleaded, tone growing harsher, but she didn’t waver.

“ _Scott_ ,” she parroted, throwing her hands down in mock (not really) anger as she started back over to him. Her expression suddenly changed from subtle rage to irking cheeriness, halting in front of him and flashing the fakest grin as she shouted through her gritted teeth, “I’m _fine!_ See?”

She wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince more, Scott or herself.

Despite pushing through the pain at all of their competitions with varying levels of outstanding success (the worst they did was a fourth place finish at their first senior Grand Prix Final, which is nothing to shake a stick at, _thank you very much_ ), Tessa could not get over the inkling in her mind that _This isn’t going to go away_. Not even once they arrived in Sweden for their second go at Worlds did she truly believe they, _she_ , could do it, regardless of their wondrous chances of finishing on the podium. No matter where they were in the world, the pain followed her, anxiety creeping through her body, making her shiver every time they throbbed.

They had no idea what to expect in Gothenburg; what the environment would be like, whether Tessa’s legs would hold out and play nice, whether their competition would be on their A game. The only thing that they could be sure of was themselves, and even Tessa had her doubts. Scott knew that she was experiencing a lot of self-doubt, and wanted to do his best to make her feel better. It wasn’t until after one of their practice sessions that he finally got the change to have a real one-on-one with her.

“T,” he started as they made their laps around the stadium track, cooling down from their practice. “I know you’re really prone to getting stuck in your own head sometimes, so I wanted to talk to you a bit about that.” Tessa kicked at the rubber flooring.

“Scott,” she groaned, “I really don’t want to talk about it. I’m fine, really.”

“Tess, I know you.” He nudged her shoulder. “I don’t want you to get too caught up on something that can’t be helped.” She went quiet as he felt her tense up, shoulders raising and hands balling into fists as she took a deep breath. He held his.

“ _I said I don’t want to talk about it_ ,” she all but whispered as she raised her head, throat tight, starting daggers into some poster on the wall in some language they both couldn’t read. Her breathing seemed laboured as she blinked rapidly, starting at another poster as they passed the first one.

“Okay,” he soothed, “Okay, I won’t make you talk about it, I promise, T.” He rubbed a hand up and down her back in an effort to calm her, sighing in relief as her shoulders relaxed and her breathing somewhat levelled out. “But I want you to make _me_ some promises, okay?”

“Depends on what they are,” she mumbled, not drawing her eyes away from the poster. 

“Okay, first,” he started slowly and calmly, not wanting to make her uncomfortable. “I don’t want you to hide your pain. At least not from me, and at least when it hurts the most. I don’t want you to push yourself and make it worse, because you know that any sort of injury in this sport is serious. I care, Tess. _Please_ don’t hide your pain. Trust me, it doesn’t make it go away.” Tessa nodding slowly as Scott continued. 

“Fine,” she murmured.

“Also,” he continued, “I don’t want you to ever think that you’re alone in this, okay? Ever. I’m here, Marina and Igor are here, and we’re with you every step of the way.”

She went quiet with thought as she pondered, watching the posters again as they went by. She could feel him gazing at her as they walked. He resorted to chewing on his lip as he awaited a response, but couldn’t stop himself from adding one more important point.

“Remember that, okay Tess? We’re here.” He held out his hand and glanced at her hopefully. “ _I’m_ here.”

Tessa eyed his hand for a moment before gingerly taking it. He squeezed her hand gently and she squeezed back.

“Okay,” she mumbled.

“ _Okay_?” Scott reiterated, emphasizing his point. Tessa nodded.

“Okay,” she whispered surely, smiling down at the floor. That’s when something caught her eye, something glittering and shining bright at her feet. With a gasp, she reached down to pick it up.

“Hey, look,” she exclaimed as she popped back up, face alight and grinning widely, putting her clasped hand right into his face. “A penny!” Scott chuckled at her child-like giddiness, smirking at her in return. 

“Good find, Tess.” He slid his arm into her elbow and continued to walk the track around the arena, pulling her along. “Maybe it’ll bring us some good luck.” She shook her head, turning to glance at his profile as they walked.

“I’m the superstitious one, Scott,” she said, “Not you.” He shrugged.

“I can be happy for you, can’t I?”

She suddenly stopped, stepping out to face him, a hand grasping his shoulder. “You didn’t plant this, did you, Scott?” She asked as she held her hand out in front of her, penny pinched between her thumb and index finger. Scott squinted at it and took note of the date the penny was minted. _1989_. Her birth year. He smiled a toothy smile and nodded innocently towards the stands with a little wobble of his head.

“There are _hundreds_ of Canadians here, Tess,” he simply stated, smirking, “Someone could have just dropped it.” He avoided her gaze, she noticed, instead deciding that the rafters looked _very_ interesting, the smirk never leaving his face. He returned his focus to her as she stared squinting into his eyes, searching for something.

“You’re not answering my question,” she said, an eyebrow raised in suspicion. His smirk broke into a small smile as he slipped his arm back into her elbow, pulling her along the track once again.

“Well,” he started, finding interest in the rafters again and purposefully avoiding her gaze, bumping his shoulder against hers bashfully. “I’m not _not_ answering your question.”

Tessa chuckled and mumbled a “Whatever” as they continued their laps around the arena, slipping the penny into the lining of her leggings. Truthfully, she didn’t want to know for sure whether Scott had or had not planted the penny. In fact, she found it rather endearing to think that he had. The rest of their walk went in harmonious silence as they watched the other teams practice down on the ice.

Ever the superstitious one, Tessa kept that ominous penny with her throughout the competition. It remained in the boot of her skate for their compulsory, original, and free dance. Perhaps it was something in the nordic air, or maybe it was _the_ something in her boot, but the entire week, her pain seemed less. Despite her slight misstep in their original dance, they made an effortless comeback in the free dance. The entire time, they felt like they were floating across the ice, and it was over within the blink of an eye, their composition of _Umbrellas_ fading away almost as soon as it had begun.

Even as they hugged in the kiss and cry, that “1” displayed on every screen in the stadium and Igor shouting at them “You’re free dance world champions!”, her mind wandered. _Of course it’s not because of some stupid penny_ , she thought, _it’s just because we’re really good skaters._ She beamed into Scott’s shoulder, tears seeping from her eyes as she laughed and added, _but a little luck never hurt._

As they stood on that podium with their silver medals around their necks, Tessa couldn’t help but think of that little piece of copper, hot against the bottom of her foot, as though it were gold.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed! I did originally post this fic about a month or so ago but I deleted it a few days later because I wasn't too happy with it, and this is the result of that! Please leave a comment if you enjoyed, it definitely helps when it comes to writing the next chapter :)
> 
> ~Mags
> 
> PS. Find me on twitter @dagietto4!


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